Kashile

Kashile! Old friend of the family
Servant and nursemaid to my brothers and me.
Kashile! taught us all we knew
About life in the wild and then we grew.
I remember the day that I first went to school.
He never had been there himself but was nobody's fool
For hunting the forest and fishing the rivers and brooks
could never be learned very well from schoolrooms and books.
And at night we would sit by his fire and play those old native games
With pebbles and stones and gaze in the flames.
Kashile! Old friend of the family
Servant and nursemaid to my brothers and me.
Kashile! taught us all we knew
About life in the wild and then we grew.
I remember the day that I went to the war.
He just stood there but I knew that his heart was sore.
For I saw something deep in those murky eyes.
Was it a premonition in a dark disguise?
Did he know of the carnage and of the tragedy?
Did he know of the outset what the outcome would be?
Kashile! Old friend of the family
Servant and nursemaid to my brothers and me.
Kashile! taught us all we knew
About life in the wild and then we grew.
I remember the day when we finally left.
There were tears in his eyes and a heaving came over his breast.
For he seemed to know of a future political act;
He'd be free in a way but it's not what he wanted in fact.
For life would be hell in a nation just newly born
And he wouldn't have us as an anchor to ride out the storm.
Kashile! Old friend of the family
Servant and nursemaid to my brothers and me.
Kashile! taught us all we knew
About life in the wild and then we grew.